Jūryoku Clan
Loyal to their clan above all else, the Jūryoku have become a smaller clan over the years due to the stringent measures they go to in the name of protecting the clan's Kekkei Genkai, Inryoku. With almost all current clan members able to use Gravity Release, the Jūryoku are a rare sight to see, but also far from unknown within the borders of Kusagakure. Clan Ideology The Jūryoku are a close knit group and are taught from a young age to be loyal to their clan. Loyalty to anything else comes second, including the village. Their only rules are to never betray the clan and to not marry without the permission of the clan. They aim to keep a close watch over where their genes end up, as they are possessive of their ability. Their marriages tend to be arranged and children are heavily guarded. Even genin are often watched over unless they are outside on a mission that they can’t intervene with. There is a worry that these children may be stolen from their families. It is a worry of their own making as they know the tale of the fate of the girls bore from the first of their clan. The woman who met a god. Most of the clan truly believe this, thinking their gifts are god given ones. That they were chosen to wield such powers. This hasn’t led to a superiority complex though, as they also believe this of any Kekkei Genkai. Clan Hierarchy With so many children being born from the girls, it was hard to keep track of them all. There was no line of succession and no protocol in place to choose a leader. In the end, when they started to refer to themselves as a clan, they felt they needed a true leader. This wouldn’t be someone that just stepped up to the position They came to the decision to nominate candidates for the position. The person who won the most votes or ended up being the only nomination became the leader. They would then hold this position until they retired, died, or the title was removed due to their failings. The oldest child of the current head was always considered the heir apparent in case of their parent's death. This was only for interim periods until the election could be held. For children below age sixteen or chuunin level the head would have picked a trusted adviser to guide their oldest. Clan History Before the hidden villages were formed there were years of fighting. It was during this time that a woman traveling the lands that would be Nohara no Kuni, found a patch of odd looking grass. It seemed to her as if it was moving. In leaning in to investigate, a vine shot out and dragged her into the grass. Unable to escape, it dragged her into its deepest depth, completely covering her. She thought she was for sure a goner when it covered her mouth. The panic made her pass out. Yet still she awakened not all that long afterwards. Realizing that she wasn’t dead, she came to the conclusion that the plants must have been somehow feeding oxygen into her system. With no way to escape the vegetation, she laid there for days. During this time she was convinced the plants began to speak with her. They told her many things, one of them being that they were giving chakra to her body to sustain life. Several tall tales were spun to her. That they were an endangered species, from a time long ago where gods roamed the earth. The biggest lie told to her being that they were gods themselves. She could tell from their connection to her that it wasn’t true. They were but a creation of a god who hadn’t even planned to produce them. An accidental formation. Still they were a benign being, meaning her no harm whatsoever. The plants knew they were dying and wished to pass on their story. After three days the vines around her body started to rescind. Crawling out from the patch, she felt better than she ever had before. Without delay she ran away, planning never to come back to this place again. When she made it back to her traveling group, she found out they thought her dead. Few left the group that long and came back alive. She told a lie about becoming lost, a few were skeptical but she was accepted back in easily. Afterwards she noticed a few strange occurrences. Plants around her began to act…strangely. Grass seemed to point towards her as if she was a magnet, larger plants leaning towards her slightly. One day when she was gathering food, she couldn't quite reach an apple high up in the trees. While reaching up, the fruit suddenly ripped itself off the branch, flying into her hand. It scared her but not enough to desire to question it, hoping to forget about it. Unfortunately that became impossible. Objects around her that she reached for came tumbling into her hands. Things got partially bad one day when she grew angry with her sister and stomped her foot. Everything in the make shift room became glued to the floor, including her sibling. She hadn't been happy about the bruise on her face. She had hit the ground so hard...she hadn't meant to hurt her. It wasn't bad when she accidentally make objects float in the air or fly to her, but she couldn't handle this. She decided she would need to figure out what was happening to her. The best bet was going back to those plants and attempt to speak with them again. Yet she couldn't leave her group again, it would be suspicious. So she waited, until they made their rounds back to that area again a year later. Running off one night, she traced her path back to where she remembered the plants being. It took a few hours because she passed it by several times but she ended up finding it. Instead of it being a healthy growth of weeds like last time, the plants were wilted. Just as they’d said, they had died. With no one to help her, she dealt with the unintended side effects of having been a captive of the wild plants. She eventually learned that she was able to manipulate patches of gravity of her own free will. The group she traveled with weren’t all that opened minded though, so she kept the secret to herself. It was simple to do. She ended up having a normal life, getting married and having children. Yet even with all her precautions, eventually her secret was discovered. She was out on the battlefield when her group was ambushed from the back. They were surrounded. Injured and cornered, she used her ability. She incapacitated a whole army of shinobi, including her own tribe. The group now new of her talents and they feared her for it. She knew of their plan to finish her off, probably before they even made it. It was human nature to destroy things that were feared after all. Her husband had come to terms with it fairly quickly unlike the rest. Knowing that they were going to come after her, she sent her husband away with their two children for fear what they would do to them. She also knew what they would do to her, but she stayed. Being hunted for the rest of her life wasn’t an option for her. She couldn’t bear to leave the area. Without any struggle she gave herself up to her group. Her execution had been quick and painless. The group didn’t bother hunting down her husband or the children. They believed the problem had been dealt with in her death. None had anticipated for her ability to be passed down to her children. After having heard the story of his wife’s gaining of the ability, he didn’t think it was genetic. It was a shock to find his children manipulating gravity one day. While weaker than their mother’s ability, it was still quite fearsome. When the girls were just becoming teenagers their family came across another group of traveling shinobi. They had been found while performing some of their jutsu. Instead of being horrified by the display, the crowd of mostly taijutsu and bukijutsu users were fascinated. The girls were practically worshiped for their gifts. In fact their interest with the girls was so strong it unsettled their father. He had been right to be worried. One day in what appeared to be some type of ritual, their father was murdered. Then they were taken and forcibly impregnated. Together the girls gave birth to a whole cluster of children. Each of them were later revealed to have the gift. By this time each of the people in the group had taken one of the children as their own. Arranged marriages were set up years in advance to get more gifted individuals born to their herd. This went on until all of the group had these abilities. Then they started to call themselves a clan. When villages started to come into existence they hadn’t paid any mind to it. Then the Daimyo of their land decided to form Kusagakure. They decided to join in its founding to get new blood introduced into their clan. They have had years of inbreeding negatively affecting some of their members, they thought this was the perfect solution. Clan Abilities Once a large clan, their numbers have lessened because of marriages being contained within the clan. Most if not all are born with the ability to manifest the Inryoku ability. There just aren’t that many of the clan left, making it a rare sight. After being pulled under by the plants for so long something had changed within the woman, physiology speaking. Like a plant, their bodies take in the sun and process it into a new kind of energy for their bodies. This energy allows them to manipulate spheres of gravity. Able to form an invisible barrier in which they control gravity around themselves, they can sometimes project this if they are of a high enough rank. In this zone they can either increase or decrease gravity. They are not capable of moving around a target within this place. They victim is either weightless or being pressurized. The clan's abilities do not work on each other as the members are immune to their own techniques. This is why possessors of this kekkei genkai aren't able to use it to fly. At most they are able to slightly manipulate the gravity at their feet. This can make their super fast, appearing as if they glide. As their abilities come to them from the power of the sun, their bodies are constantly running at a higher temperature than normal. The only time they get colder is when their charge is running low. It is pretty easy to keep a charge outside of battle if they aren't avoiding the sun on purpose. A nice side effect is that katon techniques aren't as effective on them as they would be on someone else. If a katon jutsu skims them they are able to endure this quite well. (SA required for higher levels of endurance) Category:Clans Category:Kekkei Genkai Category:Kusagakure Clans Category:Nohara no Kuni